Time under Measure
by Tara.B Amy
Summary: To grant Yami an own body a spell is used to get his dead body back from Egypt. But unfortunately that spell does not work the way they expected it to. Present and Past mingle for one short second and it’s not Yami living in the new body alone...


Title: Time under Measure 

Chapter: 1?

Chapter Title: Summoned

Author: Tara B Amy

Pairing: AtemuxYYxY, meant to be YamixYugi

Warning: Obviously a triangle of sorts; usage of the real, Japanese names (not including Yami)

Constructive Criticism Welcomed

This is an entry for the AtemuxYYxY challenge on pharaoh's hikari. The challenge may be old, but whatever. I felt like writing this anyway!

Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! does not belong to me and I don't make money with this.

Description: To grant Yami an own body a spell is used to get his dead body back from Egypt. But unfortunately that spell does not work the way they expected it to. Present and Past mingle for one short second and it's not Yami living in the new body alone...

---

The soft sound of trickling against glass made him aware of the rain that had started a minute ago. Yugi had anticipated it anxiously, once in a while looking out the window at the dark clouds hanging dangerously low over the ground today, bearing a weight they couldn't carry anymore. The trickling intensified, more drops being smashed against his window by the wind that had picked up.

Yugi sighed. It was time they began with the ceremony. He turned around to the others, who also turned their eyes away from the window.

"That's it." Ryou said with a smile, tapping at the page of the thick old book he held in his arms. "All conditions are fulfilled. Right date, rain and a good portion of chocolate chips."

"Why the chocolate chips?" Jou blinked at the bowl standing beside Anzu on the floor. The girl groaned at the question.

"They are for the other Yugi, moron," she chided, waggling a finger at Jou as the blonde continued staring at the food. "He didn't eat anything in... in... a long time!"

"Yugi, do you think he minds if...?" Jou asked hopefully, eyes still fixed on the bowl.

"Jou!" Honda punched his friend's arm lightly, but grinned nonetheless. "Insatiable glutton!"

/Yami, what do you think, will this work/ The question was sent to his darker side uncertainly.

/I don't know, aibou/ was the reply, coming along with a mental shrug. /Let's hope for the best./

They all sat down on the floor around the book and Ryou looked at his friends seriously. "Well, to explain again how this will work: This spell is supposed to bring back a person that is dead. I know this one spell particularly well, because I tried it on my family. Sadly it didn't work, because their deaths were not connected with magic. Yami's death however, whereas I mean the death of the body, not the mind, was caused by magic and thus we will be able to use this magic and cause the past and the present time to mix up. We will be able to take the dead body over into our time with Yami's spirit in it – it is his body after all and the spirit of the dead person is supposed to be back in that body."

"And what about the rain?" asked Jou from his place.

"We have to make sure we don't have the conditions of weather Yami died in, but the date should be the same or at least almost the same. It's dangerous if the times are very similar, even if we are not in Egypt right now. It doesn't usually rain in Egypt at that time of the year, so we use that knowledge. We don't want the timelines to mix up so much they get inseparable." Ryou picked up the book and reached it over to Yugi. "Here, let Yami read out the ancient Egyptian words."

Yugi nodded, mentally nudging the spirit from the puzzle. Yami sent him a quick smile and then he could feel him take control over the body they shared, the puzzle flashing for a short moment.

Yami took the book from Ryou, looking at the symbols with affection, letting one finger slide over them. One of Yugi's fingers, he mused, but soon he would have his own and then finally he would be able to hold the hands he just now controlled. Finally he would be able to touch his light for real. How he had wished for that.

"Yami?" the brunette girl asked quietly and the former pharaoh snapped out of his reverie.

"I'll begin now," he said looking up at them all. Would they really recognise him as a person when he had his own body, instead of treating him like 'the other Yugi' like they used to all the time? His eyes dropped back to the page and with slight hesitation he began to read the words out loud, putting in the name he had now and the time of his death. Briefly he wondered if it mattered that he didn't know the name from his past, but the thought slipped his mind as fast as it had come as he continued summoning the gods, asking them for their help in his search for the dead one. As soon as the last words had left his mouth light flashed from the book, throwing odd shaped shadows at the walls and causing them all to shield their eyes from its blinding intensity.

"Does it work?" Ryou asked excitedly over the deafening noise coming from the book. Then the puzzle began to glow. Yami felt a strange pull at his mind as he was forcefully stripped of the control he had had over the body he was in. Yugi's mind touched his for a moment, they both holding on to each other for a split second. Then it all stopped, the light fading and silence falling over the room.

They all stared at the seemingly lifeless body lying in Yugi's lap.

---

Yugi's POV:

Somehow he had ended up having control over his body again, but something was not right with that. Neither he nor Yami had set the change into motion and that had never happened before. Or maybe that was supposed to happen and now Yami was...

With a hopeful smile he glanced at the body that had appeared on his legs. Maybe Yami was now in that body, in his own body from the past. He let one of his hands touch the tanned skin of the forehead, gently pushing one of the strands out of the sleeping face. He relished in the feeling of finally being able to do that.

"Yami?" he asked quietly and suddenly the cold body twitched, mouth opening to draw in air greedily. A shiver ran through the teenager in his arms and red eyes fluttered open, blinking repeatedly.

"It worked!" Jou and Honda exclaimed at the same time, cheerfully jumping up and dancing through the room. "Yeah, it worked!"

"You're so immature," Anzu scoffed with a scolding glare.

"Shut up!" Yugi growled, cradling the shaking boy. "Don't you see he's in pain?"

Jou and Honda immediately stopped in their tracks and sat back down guiltily, watching as the dusty coloured fingers of the revived teenager clenched, then unclenched just to grip on to the chest, which heaved up and down with each gaped rasping breath.

"The body has been dead," Ryou pulled the book from under Yami's body from the past and closed it carefully. "We couldn't find out exactly what hour of the day the other Yugi died, so he could have been dead already for a few hours."

"What if he was still alive?" Anzu asked curiously, looking over at the Egyptian, who had now hid his face in Yugi's clothes, holding on to the warmth he gave him, still trashing weakly.

"No, he wasn't." Ryou shook his head. "We saw to that and waited another day to be safe. His day of death has been yesterday, but we couldn't risk killing the pharaoh before he actually died. That would have been disastrous."

"I imagine." Jou nodded, pulling the bowl of chocolate chips over to himself. "Since he's not able to eat them..."

Anzu slapped his hands away and took the bowl away from the blonde wordlessly. Jou pouted.

"It's all okay, Yami!" Yugi tried to reassure the quivering bundle in his arms, having curled around him like a too large kitten. "That's natural, it will pass soon. We'll get you to bed, then you can rest."

He tried to lift the slender body, but found he didn't have the strength to do so. Only with Jou's help was he able to carry him over to his bed. As he wanted to tuck Yami in under the covers the other didn't let go of him, though, fingers clenching in his cloths and pulling him as close to the cold body as possible.

"He needs warmth." Anzu said with a slight smile. "You know him best, I think he trusts you the most to give it to him." Sadness had crept into her voice at the last sentence as if she wished she were in his position.

"Should I stay with him?" Yugi asked with an affectionate smile toward the teenager holding on to him fiercely.

"That would be best." Ryou nodded, putting the ancient book back into his bag. "We will leave you then, so he gets rest. I gave you the number of my mobile phone if there are any complications."

Yugi smiled to all of them as they gave their farewell, Jou with a last mournful look at the chocolate chips, and simpered out the room. Anzu smiled in his direction sadly, but he knew she wasn't looking at him, but at the boy clinging to him. Then they were gone.

Lying down Yugi pulled the blanket over himself and the freezing Yami, relieved as the other sighed, his breath having evened.

It had always been like that with Anzu, he thought bitterly. She had always been in love with Yami and had anticipated this day as much as he had.

Now that Yami had his own body, how would he react to Anzu's feelings? With that thought he closed his eyes and nuzzled into Yami's hair, waiting for the body pressed against his to warm up.

---

Yami's POV:

He didn't know where he was. It wasn't his soul room, yet it looked almost the same. But the feeling oozing from the walls and hanging in the air around him was unfamiliar. This was the soul room of another person.

"Interesting."

Yami whirled around, eyes searching for the person having spoken that one word with his very own voice. How could...?

"We look so much alike."

Finally he found the source of that voice and gasped. Clad in an ancient garment came a tanned version of himself down the stony stairs, smiling coyly. He stopped only when a few meagre inches parted them and smirked. Yami didn't know what to say, staring at his copy mutely.

"Even our eyes are the same." A hand came up and cupped his cheek, but Yami pulled back quickly, taking a step back.

"Where am I?" he asked confusedly. "Am I in your mind?"

"Don't look so shocked." His copy chuckled and crossed his arms. "You should be honoured to be allowed to live with me here."

"Live!" Yami gasped, looking around. "But..."

"Yes, I am willing to share my soul room with you." The tanned boy smiled slyly. "You were the one having rescued me from the underworld after all."

Confusedly Yami glanced back at the other teenager. "But... how? I don't understand. I'm supposed to have back my body."

"That's where you are wrong." Another chuckle could be heard. "I am the one having lived and died with that body the sweet little one cares about right now. It's our body and we share one mind now."

Understanding dawned and Yami closed his eyes for a moment, wishing to be able to turn back time and change it. Instead of getting his own body he now shared it with the pharaoh he had been once! How much worse could it get?

"It's not that bad." The pharaoh smiled broadly. "While I'm out there you can search my mind for information about your past. You want to know about it, right?"

"How...?"

"And you should definitely catch up with your old skills." His copy laughed heartily and vanished into nothingness.

Yami stared at the spot he had stood in flabbergasted and then shook his head with a grim smile. Was the pharaoh trying to challenge him? He had got the weird expression of being able to look through the barrier the other had set to shield his thoughts for a moment and had found the flicker of provocation.

What was it the pharaoh wanted to fight with him for?

He closed his eyes, breathing in the air deeply and indulging his mind into the one he felt was sharing this soul with him, searching for a reason.

Gasping he snapped his eyes open, having found what he had searched for. He couldn't believe it, blinking away the last traces of what he had seen.

The challenge... the pharaoh wanted to take away his life from him, taking his place in the world that slowly had started to accept his presence.

He wanted to take Yugi away from him.

Rage set in, flaring around him like a lethal fire. Yami growled lowly, slitting his eyes dangerously.

No, never would he let that happen. He gritted his teeth and glared at the walls, telling him stories from ancient times in Egyptian symbols. Never would he let that happen.

---

Atemu's POV:

He opened his eyes slowly, the pain in his chest flooding back into his system. He resisted just going back into his soul room to evade it and tried to get his eyes to focus instead. It was almost dark in the room he was in and he realised he still was in the bed he had been in before he had went to his soul room to flee the pain and met Yami in the end. At least now it was warm. Indeed the warmth surrounded him wholly and most of it came from the being lying in his arms, holding him. He smiled and pulled back a bit so he could look into the sleeping face of the boy that was so prominent in Yami's mind. Yes, exactly that boy was it, soft features, looking just like Yami and him and smelling just as sweet as Yami's thoughts had promised. He breathed in the intoxicating scent, closing his eyes blissfully. Yes, he definitely liked that.

He understood why Yami was attracted to the little one. Now he just wanted to find out why he was so madly in love with him.

Grinning maliciously he leaned forward so that his face was close to the other's, intent on adding another experience to those Yami had made with that fascinating creature. Why Yami had never done that when he easily could have coaxed him into his soul room, was a mystery to him. Probably his other self had gone weak over the millennia, he thought, catching the soft lips of that boy Yugi with his own, nipping at them, relishing in the feeling of pale pliant skin under his fingers as he let his dark fingers slide over a smooth cheek. The contrast between their skin colours was fascinating and he wondered if the boy had even once seen the sun. Had he been born under the moon?

The sudden boiling anger that hit him from the one sharing his soul made him pull back from the little one's lips and smirk in satisfaction. He ignored the murderous attempts Yami made to get control over the body and pulled the little one closer to himself, loving the feeling of the other body against his own. It seemed Yami really had to catch up with his former powers, which had weakened considerably over the time he had been chained to the puzzle.

Atemu sighed contentedly, curling back around Yugi as he had done earlier and letting sleep come over him. As long as Yami was not able to overpower him, he could feel secure and in charge of things.

He would make Yugi his, that was for sure.

---

**To Be Continued...**

_For those interested: I also have written a co-work with Sansi. The story is posted on her profile. For more info look at my profile. You also get the link there_


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